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John Henry understands a lot of sabermetrics that’s quite important in the game of baseball. I’d be willing to put his sabermetric knowledge up against Terry Francona’s any day.

There's something very interesting in an Economics professor singing the praises of a guy who went from "This money thing is just paper" to "We are crippled by giving this paper stuff to the likes of Carl Crawford."

and except for the last few years, practically every year the postseason experience.

Why on earth did he choose CHB to co-author? That pretty much kills any desire on my part to read it.

If you're interested in what Francona has to say don't let this dissuade you. Shaughnessy quotes him often and at length, there is never any doubt when you're reading Francona's words and when you're reading Shaughnessy's words. Shaughnessy's ########## comes through loud and clear in the book but it's not the majority of the text.

Wasn't it mentioned in another thread that Zimbalist is now a paid consultant to MLB?

Zimbalist has what, a decade or more of credible analysis, usually against what the owners are fronting. These last two articles sure make him look bought but I think it would be hasty to dump him in the Haw Haw category so quickly.

I don't know what the timeline is, but way back in the day, he wrote the book on how publicly-financed baseball stadiums were a fraud. His more recent analysis does seem a lot more owner-friendly.

I read the book... it's extremely critical of MLB and public stadium financing. It also outlines, in detail, how wealthy teams hide revenue from MLB. I think it's the latter part that got Bud's interest.

Also, to the extent Zimbalist is no longer outspoken about stadium financing then his views are almost certainly compromised by virtue of his MLB relationship.

To take out certain things like that, to take them out of context, I thought it was petty.

As opposed to pulling an imaginary context out of your ass...

“When you’re sitting around in a meeting and you’re brainstorming about what should we do to deal with flagging ratings on NESN or issues with potential drops in season tickets or whatever the meeting might be, you’re sitting around and you’re brainstorming and you say something. It’s just trying to, it’s off the top of your head. You’re trying to have a discussion about an issue. . . .

If I was in Francona's shoes and somehow an alleged issue with addiction became public knowledge, I would feel more than justified in sounding off on the ownership group. Zimbalist calling Francona "petty" is a little much IMO.

Zimblast is trashing the idea of using public funds for stadiums here, so I don't think he's acting as an MLB mouthpiece. He's also taking a shot a guy who's currently the manager of an MLB team, which I wouldn't think MLB would like very much.